EDITORIAL: In wake of tragedy, we must use our rational minds

This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.” Jeremiah 31:15

It’s the reading of the names that is the hardest.

Whether it be President Obama in the Newtown high school auditorium or a priest in a Shelby sanctuary – the reading of the names of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting elicited the starkest displays of emotion.

There is something about the names. They are names of people we know – Chase and Charlotte and Noah and Jessica. They are “every child.” Yet, they are now immortalized in the most tragic way.

It has been a national time of grieving and mourning. And thanks be to God for that – without mourning there is no healing. Without the dusk, there can be no dawn. Without death, no resurrection.

It is vital that we allow the emotions to flow – cordoning them off inside our souls inhibits the process of healing which starts with grief.

But we must also understand that, like waters released from a dammed-up river, even emotions that flow must be controlled. Grief that flows unchecked ad infinitum is neither realistic nor healthy.

And the reason we have family, friends, pastors and counselors is to make sure that grief does not cloud our decision-making processes.

It is with that backdrop that we launch this series of editorials on the Connecticut shooting tragedy.

Nothing contained within these editorials should be construed in any way as even the slightest diminishment of this terrible tragedy and its impact on the American family.

Yet, we aim to provide a context. To reintroduce rational thinking into the national “visitation” that is our current mourning.

We do this because, ultimately, the actions taken in the wake of this tragedy are important – symbolically, as tributes to the victims, and in a real sense.

We are also writing because we fear what might happen if grief, improperly channeled, drives the process of “solving” this problem..

Fear of decisions based on emotion, not rational thought. Fear that grief will cloud our national judgment. Fear that our incendiary political climate will combust. Fear that “winning” will become more important than anything else.

When emotion battles logic, emotion often wins. And rarely is society better for it.

The urge to “do something” can be overpowering – an often appropriate. From sending aid to earthquake victims to contributing to an empty stocking fund to helping a friend find a new job, “doing something” is how we care for each other.

But when we enter a collective realm, the effects are fraught with a degree of peril. We end up with Japanese internment camps during World War II because we wanted to “do something” about Pearl Harbor. We end up with untold millions scammed from and by FEMA in the wake of Katrina. We end up invading Iraq because we wanted to “do something” about terrorism.

Page 2 of 2 - The “Law of Unintended Consequences” is something we fear greatly – almost every legislative action comes with all sorts of reactions.

And so, even as our emotions surge and ebb and then surge again, we ultimately must use our minds to determine what actions will follow this horrible event. We must not be seduced by the urge to “do something” and must instead affix our minds on “doing something … the net effect of which will be to make things better.”

We know there are key areas in the limelight: our young people being subjected to and allowed to participate in a culture of violence; the role of faith and morality in our society; how our nation deals with the issue of mental health; and, of course, guns.

Oh, and one more issue – liberty, which is, after all, the foundation of our republic.

To honor the memories of those 26 names that we have heard recited, the only thing worse than doing nothing would be to “do something” for the sake of doing something – to do something that actually makes the situation worse, or that undercuts our precious principles in an effort to shore up other principles.

So, today we grieve. And the grieving will not soon end. But in the coming tomorrows we must turn off the flow of emotion for at least enough time to use our rational minds to contemplate solutions.